


show some entrepreneurial initiative

by pyrophane



Category: 7 Seeds
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-03 15:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8719471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyrophane/pseuds/pyrophane
Summary: Mayu’s Modifications, for all of your uniform embellishment needs!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [transversely](https://archiveofourown.org/users/transversely/gifts).



> dear transversely, you probably figured out my identity within 0.03 seconds of seeing the character tags/summary, so: happy yuletide, have this nth installment in the Mayu Does Things series, and here’s to another wonderful year of sketchy vigilante romancing <3 originally this was going to be a serious mayuverse fic with a louise glück title and everything, but things were not destined to work out (UNLIKE... you know).
> 
> thank you to rin for the impeccable beta work!

 

 

 

 

 

Koruri let out her sixth gusty sigh in the space of fifteen minutes and drooped over her Physics project schematics like a limp banner.

“What’s wrong?” said Mayu, setting her highlighter down so she could rub soothing circles into Koruri’s shoulder. She’d been annotating the horrifically dry Intro to Soil Class reading on terpenoids and phenolic resins since the start of study period, and any diversion was more than welcome.

“Field specialisation selections,” mumbled Koruri. “You two have it so easy, Mayu-chan’s wanted to do Fire Class and Soil Class _forever,_ and Nobara-chan’s so smart… I don’t even know which kind of stew I want for dinner, never mind what I want to do for the rest of my life!”

“We’ve been having the same dinner choices since we turned ten,” said Nobara.

“That’s the point!” wailed Koruri. “What should I do? Medicine Class? Plant Class? Does it match with Wind Class? Is it even supposed to match?”

Nobara made a sympathetic noise and patted Koruri’s hair. “Let’s go outside and start building this turbine first, before it gets too cold.”

“Oh!” said Mayu, clapping her hands. “That reminds me—I finished embroidering our track jackets! But they’re up in the dorm, shall I go get them?”

Nobara and Koruri let out twin squeals of delight; Mayu smiled and rose to her feet.

“Everyone,” she called, pausing in the doorway of the Great Hall to raise her voice over the general clamour. “Don’t forget to hand in your field specialisation forms, they’re due in two weeks! And if anyone else wants any uniform modifications, come see me and I’ll do my best!”

Mayu hurried back to the room she shared with Koruri to pick up the folded jackets on her bedside table. She liked to consider herself something of a businesswoman—after all, clothes didn’t exactly grow on trees, and certainly wouldn’t in the future, so there was something of a market niche to exploit there. Thus far she’d been cultivating quite a brisk trade: a row of embroidered flames along the flipside of Ango’s track jacket collar in exchange for an egg-sized chalcedony nodule and his prized magazine cutout of a dancer—a Kagurazaka something who, according to the attached article, had just given birth to a daughter; a quick tailoring job for Shigeru in exchange for his World History notes; and a new lining for three of Nijiko’s jackets free of charge, because it was Nijiko. She’d also made a series of indirect overtures to Ayu but those were yet to yield any results.

When Mayu returned to the hall, Nobara had begun packing away the study paraphernalia scattered over the desk, easing the schematics out from under Koruri’s arms where she was still slumped over them. “The final product,” Mayu said, brandishing the heap of fabric in her arms. She’d done a slender loop of vines along the cuffs of their jackets—red for Nobara, blue for Koruri, yellow for herself—so that it sat just over their wrists when they were wearing them, a sturdier iteration of their friendship bracelets. Nobara and Koruri shook their jackets out, exclaiming.

“It’s so lovely!” Koruri cried, and leapt out of her seat to throw her arms around Mayu.

“Thanks,” Nobara said. “You’re the best, Mayu-chan!”

“Not a problem,” Mayu said, with a modest toss of her head. “You guys go ahead and finish your project, I’m heading back to the dorm in case anyone else has a job for me.”

A few minutes after she’d arrived back in her room and settled into a new reading, Ryo skulked through her doorway, eyes narrowed, very unsubtly trying to peer over her shoulder into the adjoining chamber. Mayu shifted to block his line of sight.

“Koruri-chan’s out doing her Physics assignment with Nobara-chan, if that’s what you’re here for,” she said. “Though I’m happy to pass on any messages you might have!”

“Like I’d trust you to pass on anything,” muttered Ryo. He listed sideways like the effort of keeping himself upright was simply too much for his musculoskeletal system to bear. Legs askew and shoulders tipping in, as though he were leaning on an invisible wall conveniently situated by his side at all times for the purposes of aesthetic insolence. What this did have the effect of was leaving his right side gaping screamingly with more holes than a microvesicular pyroclastic; right off the top of her head she could think of around five different methods of taking him down.

Mayu folded her hands together, thumbs turned inwards, and smiled. “Then what can I do for you, Ryo-kun?”

“I heard about your… business,” he said, voice dropping to a whisper on the last word and somehow managing to make needlework sound like a sordid back-alley affair. She felt as though she should scrounge up a wide-brimmed hat and one of those long coats so they could reenact the civilian film scene Ryo was probably taking his cues from with the appropriate panache. Clandestine meetings, bullets spraying everywhere, an unusual amount of window shutters for dramatic lighting, all the fixtures of a so-called romantic comedy.

“Mayu’s Modifications,” said Mayu. “For all of your uniform embellishment needs! It’s got a nice ring to it, don’t you think? What sort of design are you thinking about?”

“I want a death’s-head hawkmoth on the pocket—do you know what a—”

“Yes, Ryo-kun, I know what a death’s-head hawkmoth is, I sat through Intro to Animal Class just like you did.”

“Well, I just want the patch, my sewing’s better than yours. I’ll stitch it on myself, so you better not charge me what you charged Ango.”

She eyed the neat double row of stitches reinforcing his jacket cuffs. “Perhaps,” she agreed. “But the sewing is really the least complicated part of the equation. I’ll have to design and embroider the patch, all you’ll have to do is attach it.”

“Can you do it or not?”

“Well,” she said, tapping a pencil against her chin in feigned deliberation. “It’s a complex design, Ryo-kun, it’ll take me at least three days from draft to final product, and I won’t be able to fill any other orders in that timeframe... ”

“What do you want.”

“Swap titration sets with me for a week. And I want you to show me how you make your buffer solution.”

“Are you kidding? The Chemistry topic test’s next week—”

“Yes,” Mayu said patiently. “That’s why I need your titration set. My burette is old and imprecise and I would like to top the class for once so I can get a replacement. This is a win-win situation, Ryo-kun, there’s really no reason to reject the offer. You get your nice titration set back, I get a better one too.” She gave him a winning smile. “If you really don’t want to pay, why don’t you show some entrepreneurial initiative and do the whole thing yourself?”

“... One week. We swap burettes only, I’m not touching your Erlenmeyer flask.”

“And the buffer solution?”

Ryo looked physically pained. “Fine. I’ll show you after dinner.”

“Then we have a deal!” Mayu stuck out her hand and stared Ryo down until he grasped it, mouth strung tight. “Civilian custom,” she explained, cheerful. “It’s a common courtesy to hold hands after a business contract is negotiated, I hear. My theory is that they’ve stumbled upon a good gauge for determining the sincerity of your business partner in following through, you know, the physical proximity and the skin-to-skin contact. Makes it easy to check for dilation of pupils and perspiring palms and such.”

He looked down at their interwoven fingers. “So what do you do if you figure the other person’s gonna break their end of the deal, stab them first?”

“Presumably!” Mayu said, keeping her stance easy and wide. “Personally I find that rather barbaric. After all—” she grabbed his sleeve with her other hand, hooked her arm under his, and flipped him over her shoulder, “—there are much more elegant ways to resolve anything that might arise!”

He must have shifted his weight at the last moment, since the throw didn’t leave him winded and gasping on the floor despite her overly judicious elbows; he’d barely touched the ground before he was on his feet again, graceful as the neat hyperbolic arc Koruri’s prototype glider swept through the morning sky. She’d been watching for surprise on his features as he fell but found them blank as still water. Mayu supposed that was something that came courtesy of his unassailable rank at the top of Physical Education, the surety in his own body’s instincts of response, reciprocation. What a thrill it was, knowing that these were the people she could take with her into the future someday!

She braced herself for the retaliating blow. To her surprise he shoved his hands in his pockets and gave her an aggrieved stare instead.

“Poor posture can be deadly,” she said, then, recovering. “I know that some people, say, for example, Koruri-chan, are very fussy about personal habits…”

“Unbelievable,” he muttered, and turned to slink off again, though his shoulders had straightened considerably.

“Send Nijiko-chan my regards,” she called.

Ryo didn’t respond, which wasn’t too upsetting. They all had Calculus II together in half an hour, anyway.

“Mayu-chan!” Koruri exclaimed, skidding into the room. “Wait—was that _Ryo-kun_ I just saw leaving?”

“It certainly was,” Mayu agreed.

“Ohhh,” Koruri said, knowingly, before brightening up and grabbing her wrist. “Well, anyway, the wind turbine’s done, come and see!”

Mayu allowed Koruri to drag her all the way to the lower grounds outside the Science block by the river, where she and Nobara had rigged up an impressively-sized wind turbine attached to a motor. The slatted wheel of wooden blades they’d taken three Woodwork lessons to finish planing moved back and forth very slightly, its axle locked in place while Nobara fiddled around with the wires. She glanced up and waved as they drew near.

To one side of the setup Ango was alternating between muttering something to Shigeru and Gengoro under his breath and glaring daggers at Ryo, sans jacket, balanced against a tree and scowling serenely at something in the distance. Under the tree, Nijiko was napping on what was probably Ryo’s bunched-up jacket, her own draped over her shoulders, slivers of the fetching new lining peeking through at the downturned collar. 

“The moment of truth,” Nobara shouted. She took the clamps off the axle and the turbine began to turn. An eager hush descended. The blades picked up speed. Mayu leaned forward, watching the wheel spin faster and faster.

The motor stuttered to life with a dull roar. “Yes!” Koruri shrieked, throwing her arms out and colliding with Nobara, who’d reached for her at the same time. Cheers erupted around the clearing; Nijiko lifted an eyelid and performed what could reasonably be construed as a smile. Mayu swept Nobara and Koruri into her arms, laughing. Here was the proof, the fruition of what they’d done, together.

The sun shifted lower. Light flooded into the curve of the earth that held them steady and all of a sudden Mayu could see it, shielding her eyes and peering past the rumbling turbine and down the river unspooling out to the far-away flatlands with their rushgrass seams: the template of everything that was yet to come. Traitorously she thought she wouldn’t even have minded if that nebulous someday came tomorrow and found them like this, their fingers stippled and stung by light, the golden afternoon pouring over the fields, turning to amber around them. All of them delivered into the cupped, waiting palms of the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think in the comments!


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